Album Review: ALICE COOPER - Detroit Stories

 

01. Rock 'N' Roll (Velvet Underground cover)
02. Go Man Go 
03. Our Love Will Change The World (Outrageous Cherry cover)
04. Social Debris
05. $1000 High Heel Shoes
06. Hail Mary
07. Detroit City 2021
08. Drunk And In Love
09. Independence Dave
10. I Hate You
11. Wonderful World
12. Sister Anne (MC5 cover) 
13. Hanging On By A Thread (Don't Give Up)
14. Shut Up And Rock
15. East Side Story (Bob Seger cover)

 

After the teaser EP, Breadcrumbs, laid the path to this new album, Detroit Stories, I had a good idea what to expect. The whole album is a tribute to Detroit and it's rich music scene and musically history. I believe the album was recorded in Detroit, using only musicians from Detroit too, in order to try and capture some of that magic.

Being a child of Detroit, I can see what Alice is doing with this record. It's clearly a passion project that will no doubt appeal to fans of his early 70's work. Producer Bob Ezrin is back, which is no surprise as Alice not only holds him in extremely high esteem, but he's a legendary producer from the era that Alice is particularly paying tribute to.

Detroit Stories is a well written, diverse, Classic Rock album, and I have no doubt that Alice has achieved everything he wanted to with it. I would say it's on a par with his last studio album, 2017's Paranormal (read my review here), although I would have preferred Detroit Stories to have some more original tracks, and less covers. 

There are some great songs here such as the high-octane Go Man Go, the funky $1000 High Heel Shoes, and the single Social Debris.

The thing about artists whose careers span decades is that their sound will have likely changed several times over the years. Each fan will have their own favourite era, and will be hoping that the new album sounds a certain way. I enjoy all of Alice Cooper's records, but my personal favourites are from the mid-eighties to the early 90's, that's Constrictor through to Hey Stoopid. 

Alice has put out many records in recent years that will appeal to fans of his seventies' sound, like the last two, and 2003's fantastic The Eyes Of Alice Cooper, but I think we're long overdue a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal album from him. I know it probably won't happen, but I'd love another record like that before he retires. Ideally, with Desmond Child producing, and his current live band playing on the album. C'mon Alice! Please!!!